SIfO Analytical Notices of Books. 



a very curious, although for the present an isolated, observation indicative 

 of the early period at which the embryo may exhibit a monstrous forma- 

 tion. Among the ova contained in the uterus of a sow, and which from 

 their magnitude and degree of development, appeared to have just passed 

 the third week of their growth, Dr. Von Baer observed one of much 

 smaller size, but which, on being opened, was found to contain two 

 diminutive sacculi, having the appearance of hydatids. In one of these 

 sacs, the larger of the two, was found an embryo, deficient in the skull ; 

 and in the other, which was extremely minute, a second without any 

 vestige of head and destitute also of the anterior part of the body. In 

 both these embryos, notwithstanding their small size, the developement 

 of the abdomen and limbs was such as to evince that they had been 

 expelled from the ovary at the same time with the other ova among which 

 they were found. The authour thinks it improbable that these embryos 

 could ever have attained their full growth; and states his belief that the 

 deficiency of skull and head at so early a period can only be accounted 

 for by assuming this monstrosity to have its origin in the ovary itself, 

 although the want of skull may also frequently be the consequence of 

 hydrocephalus. 



In a paper " Ueber die geheilte Verletzung eines Fossilen Hyaenen- 

 " Schedels," by Samuel Thomas von Soemmering, we have an exposition 

 of some of the latest opinions of that great anatomist on the subject of 

 fossil bones. The object of the paper is to illustrate the fossil skull of a 

 hysena, remarkable for an extensive fracture of its occipital crest, which 

 had entirely healed, although in a very irregular manner. Of this skull 

 some account had previously been given both by M. Cuvier and by Dr. 

 Buckland, who concurred in opinion that the injury was the result of a 

 bite, inflicted, according to M. Cuvier, either by its fellow hyaenas or by 

 the lions and tigers, the bones of which found in the same cavern prove 

 them to have inhabited the same locality. Dr. Buckland does not admit 

 the latter conjecture, and M. Soemmering agrees with him in thinking that 

 the bite was received from another hysena. His paper commences with 

 an enumeration of the places in which fossil remains of hyaenas have 

 hitherto been found, and of the figures of them that have been published 

 from time to time. He states that fossil skulls of hyaenas appear to be 

 more rare in Germany than those of bears; and minutely compares one 



